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Effective Marketing
The Story Behind the Numbers: Incorporating Mission,
Values and Results in Your 990-PF
by Meg Phee
Every year, we recognize certain dates as important or
significant in our calendar year - birthdays, holidays,
anniversaries, and of course, the ever-impending tax day
- April 15th. Whether individually or for our
organization, most of us dread tax season as we compile
our financial information for the past year and try to
make rhyme or reason of it to file in a concise and
complete manner. Foundations face this struggle every
year as they work to complete their Form 990-PF to
record the financial statements of their organizations.
Yet, the pressure to provide an accurate and
well-informed Form 990-PF has doubled as foundations and
non-profits find themselves in an environment of
increased scrutiny and examination by the media,
policymakers and donors. This is the result of the fact
that these decision-makers rely heavily on the Form
990-PF to assess and understand the scope and range of
organizational practices. However, far too many
foundations view the document as solely communicating
financial behavior and pass on the opportunity to share
narrative descriptions of programmatic successes.
Noting this predicament, The Communications Network
hosted an Ongoing Learning Workshop titled, “The Story
Behind the Numbers: Incorporating Mission, Values and
Results in Your 990-PF,” which was led by top
communications consultant Dave Biemesderfer, who has
spent a good amount of time during the past few years
examining and analyzing the information presented in the
Form 990-PF by foundations nationwide.
Dave led participants through an engaging power point
presentation that covered segments areas such as: how
the media uses the form to generate news coverage, who’s
reading your Form 990-PF, general guidelines, content
considerations, and format and access, among others. The
Network was fortunate to be able feature this sneak
preview presentation offered by Dave which was later
offered at the Council on Foundations Annual Conference
in San Diego in early April 2005.
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